Cincinnati's Freedom Center sheds its chains of doubt

Aug. 2, 2014
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Students listen to a docent talk about the ‚??Journey‚??s and I‚?Ě quilt that was made by Columbus artist Aminah Brenda Lynn
Robinson. The quilt hangs in the National Underground Freedom Center. / Liz Dufour, The Cincinnati Enquirer

by Mark Curnutte, The Cincinnati Enquirer

by Mark Curnutte, The Cincinnati Enquirer

CINCINNATI - The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center marks the 10th anniversary of its opening Sunday, celebrating a decade in which it survived derision, doubts and debt that nearly shut it down.

Today, an Enquirer review of the center's financial documents and interviews with key civic and business leaders finds an institution poised for growth in the next 10 years.

After early struggles with financing and disappointing attendance, the Freedom Center is enjoying a surge in its endowment, a balanced budget, beefed-up programming and growing national renown.

"I see us becoming increasingly stronger financially and playing a major role here and abroad in promoting a particular type of freedom ‚?? inclusive freedom," center President Clarence G. Newsome said. "It is predicated on the equality of all people of all races and ethnicities. In history, a select group of people have experienced it, while many groups have not."

It's been a hard 10 years.

The Freedom Center opened on Aug. 3, 2004, seeking an elusive identity as both museum for Underground Railroad artifacts and living space for the discussion of modern-day slavery. Just three years after the 2001 riots, its reception was split: Either welcomed or scorned ‚?? while growing red ink sapped taxpayer dollars and patience.

As recently as December 2011, the center's leaders told The Enquirer that the institution had only a year to live if a stubborn $1.5 million budget shortfall could not be closed. The exclusive Enquirer report generated both financial aid and in-kind service help.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation offered a $1.8 million grant. And more than a dozen professional firms, ranging from accountants to marketing specialists, provided free or discounted services to help turn around the center.

Now, the center is looking forward to a series of commemorative events that includes a visit by former Polish President Lech Walesa and will honor former South African President Nelson Mandela.

As the Freedom Center enters its next decade, challenges remain.

Late in 2011, center officials stared at a 2012 budget that had $4.5 million in expenses but just $3 million in revenues.

"We're scratching and clawing," Kim Robinson, then-Freedom Center president and chief executive, said at the time.

It was bottom. But financial fortunes would soon turn around.

In July 2012, the Freedom Center merged with the Cincinnati Museum Center, and a projected $1.3 million in savings were realized.

Famed quilter Carolyn Mazloomi was one of six artists commissioned to create artwork for the Freedom Center's "And Still We Rise" quilt exhibit that closes Sept. 1. Co-created by the Freedom Center and the Museum Center, the exhibit is already booked to travel and show in an Orlando, Fla., museum beginning in January and in a museum in Austin, Texas, in June. Two other contracts for the exhibit that would have it on the road well into 2016 are under review. The Freedom Center will earn revenue from the traveling exhibit.

The Freedom Center had a balanced budget of $5.4 million for fiscal year 2012-13.

Its endowment, which stood at $1.6 million at the end of June 2012, now is $4.8 million. A 1:1 endowment match up to $5 million, guaranteed by former Freedom Center board co-Chairman John Pepper and his wife, Francie, was extended one year to the end of 2014. The Peppers, who have made contributions in excess of $15 million to the Freedom Center, want to see the endowment reach $10 million.

"We have a much stronger financial foundation," Pepper told The Enquirer. "But the (fundraising) battle is never over. We are looking to create a sustainable financial structure."

Attendance reached 121,449 in 2013, the highest since 2008, and attendance revenue increased 35 percent, according to Freedom Center documents.

The center paid off its mortgage in 2011 and owns its building. The amount of taxpayer money received has dropped to less than 7 percent of the budget.

Still, as a relatively young institution the Freedom Center is working to expand its internal exhibit and artifact offerings and continue to contribute to the worldwide movement linking 19th-century U.S. slavery to forms of contemporary slavery that ensnare an estimated 27 million people.

Two recent acquisitions have added to the center's collection. The first is a cast iron cooking pot believed to have belonged to Margaret Garner. Born in Boone County and enslaved, she escaped in 1856 with her husband and children across the Ohio River but was captured in Cincinnati. The story of how Garner killed her daughter rather than allow her returned to slavery is the basis of the 1987 Toni Morrison novel "Beloved."

The cooking pot is on loan to the Freedom Center after its excavation from the Gaines plantation in northern Kentucky.

The other is the original headstone of Salmon P. Chase, who died in 1873 when he was presiding chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Originally buried near Washington, D.C., Chase's remains were moved to Spring Grove Cemetery in 1886, and the original tombstone was deposited on the property.

Both artifacts are on display in the Slavery to Freedom exhibit.

The Freedom Center partnered with the State Department in 2012 to produce the documentary "Journey to Freedom," which marries the story of Solomon Northup, a captured free man forced into slavery for 12 years during the 19th century, with several examples of contemporary slavery worldwide. The film showed at more than 50 U.S. embassies worldwide. The center recently acquired an original 1853 copy of Northup's book, titled "Twelve Years a Slave."

The Freedom Center has the first museum-quality exhibit devoted to contemporary bondage, "Invisible: Slavery Today," which opened in 2010. Earlier this year, the Freedom Center earned accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, given only to 3 percent of 35,000 specialized museums nationwide.

The Freedom Center continues to improve its outreach and attachment to the local community. Its

One of the center's unique relationships is with General Electric, an original donor to its construction and development. GE's Global Operations Center building is rising just to the west of the Freedom Center. GE Aviation is also working as a financial partner with the Freedom Center to help it develop a business and convening center on its fourth and fifth floors.

"We're committed to helping the center develop and promote this conference center," said Pat Zerbe, community relations manager for GE Aviation. "Our expectation is this plan not only will increase revenues but also provide more options for the center's use."

GE and the Freedom Center worked together during the July National Urban League Convention in Cincinnati. The two organizations played host to 300 high school students in a leadership summit that ended with a center tour.

In fact, the Freedom Center is responsible for helping to attract up to $8 million in convention business each year, according to a University of Cincinnati study.

Cincinnati Reds chief operating officer Phil Castellini said the Freedom Center helped to win Major League Baseball's Civil Rights Games at Great American Ball Park in 2009 and 2010. "The Freedom Center's proximity to the ballpark and message were key factors ... and ultimately led to securing the the bid to host the 2015 Major League All-Star Game," he said.

Newsome sees the Freedom Center becoming a national household name in the next 10 years.

"I see us making Cincinnati very proud," he said. "In our partnering with arts, civil rights and religious groups, we can have a positive impact on cultural and economic development."